On 1 July, millionaires across Australia will get a $16,400 tax cut, while some 700,000 Australian workers will get their Sunday and public holiday pay rates cut. In my electorate, 11,000 people work in the industries that will be affected by these cuts. Tell me how that is fair. I have been talking to people across my community about these cuts. Countless locals have signed our petitions ‘Protect our penalty rates’. People in my community are worried, and for good reason. Our community are concerned, and they are taking real action because they know what these cuts mean for low-income earners in our community. Whether these cuts are phased in over two years or three years does not really matter; the damage will be done: Australian workers will be worse off.

I call on the Liberal Party do the right thing by my constituents and, indeed, their own constituents by voting with Labor to protect the take-home pay of some of our lowest paid workers. Today they can decide to back workers instead of their millionaire mates, and they can do it by supporting Labor’s legislation. This is a government that is presiding over a low wages growth economy, an economy with low growth across sectors, and its trickle-down model is not working. The country is becoming more unfair, the difference in the distribution of wealth is sharpening and Australians are worse off. It is time for this government to demonstrate some real compassion and support Labor’s legislation to restore wage justice.

Those of us who served in the last parliament will remember how the member for Warringah, when he was the Prime Minister, used to enjoy the ludicrous custom of describing himself as the infrastructure Prime Minister, and we used to watch the obsequious ministers of the time slither to their feet and refer to the Prime Minister in their questions as their ‘infrastructure Prime Minister’. Sadly, this Orwellian distortion continued after the honourable member who is presently Prime Minister seized the throne, because we have learnt through bitter experience that, when this government starts talking about an issue, we can all be certain that that issue is set for neglect, for under-investment and for mismanagement. That has been our experience with respect to schools. That has been our experience with respect to universities. That has been our experience with respect to a government that used to talk about debt and deficit—and yet, today, the deficit is 10 times greater than what they predicted it would be in 2014.

So, too, it is with infrastructure, because they would be better to describe themselves as ‘no infrastructure prime ministers’ than as ‘infrastructure prime ministers’, given the sad record they offer the people of Australia. The most recent budget cut $1.6 billion in this financial year alone. But it gets worse, because funding then drops off over the next four years, falling to $4.2 billion in 2020-21. This will be the lowest level of infrastructure funding for more than 10 years, according to Infrastructure Partnerships Australia. Over the forward estimates, funding will collapse from something like $8 billion to a mere $4 billion. The only new on-budget investment is a measly $13 million for a little road near Nowra—a little bit of pork-barrelling for the marginal seat of Gilmore. And how typical of this lot that the only thing they offer at the end of producing this vast bureaucracy is a little boondoggle for their mate in Gilmore.

The government’s infrastructure funding announcement is a hoax. It delivers less over a longer period, and it demonstrates this government’s unwillingness and inability to invest in real nation-building.

As a Victorian, the allegation that we have a Sydney-centric Prime Minister is made out absolutely when one looks at infrastructure spending, because Victoria is once again dudded by this government. Despite the dishonest claim in his budget speech that the government is delivering an extra billion dollars in funding for the regional rail and infrastructure in Victoria, Senate estimates has revealed that the 2017 budget does not include a single extra dollar of funding for my state.

Victoria’s share of federal infrastructure funding remains well below 10 per cent, some 8c in the dollar. We are 25 per cent of the nation’s economy. We are 25 per cent of the nation’s population. Yet we attract only eight per cent of infrastructure funding. How could it be so?

It has often been said that this budget was the government inoculating itself against its greatest weaknesses. We have seen them fain compassion in the field of education; we have seen them try it on in Medicare. How can it be that a budget of inoculation offers nothing for my state of Victoria? Sadly, the answer is: because this government has given up on the state of Victoria. As far as they are concerned the state of Victoria is to be punished for committing the sin of not voting for them. The state of Victoria is being punished for not voting for this government.

Our Victorian members in this House—even those Victorian members who are in the government—say nothing about it. It is a disgrace. They are cutting funding for major roads and rail projects. They are cutting funding for fixing dangerous black spots on local roads. They are cutting funding for building new roadside facilities, such as rest stops for truck drivers. But, of course, why would they care? These things do not only endanger Australian business and economic life; they endanger the actual lives of drivers. We know that fatalities among articulated truck drivers rose by 7.2 per cent last year. But this government does not care.

All up, federal infrastructure spending per Victorian has more than halved; from some $201 under the former Labor government to a mere $92 under the Turnbull government. They have even refused the Victorian government’s request for regional rail funding from the Asset Recycling Fund. This is an outrage. This federal government signed up to providing the Victorian government with monies under its asset recycling program, an obligation that it has walked away from. This is proof that this government regards COAG processes—and its own word when given to a premier—as nothing compared to its own political interest.

Treasurer Tim Pallas has said the only reason they would not support this project would be in circumstances where they just want to find another excuse— (Time expired)

I wish to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and pay my respects to their elders past and present.

Most of all, I would like to acknowledge the members of the Stolen Generation here today and your very powerful stories.

We gather here today to hear your voice, to mourn with you, to acknowledge your pain, and to say sorry.

This has been a significant week of commemoration and acknowledgment for our nation.

Earlier this week in Parliament, and indeed across the nation, we marked two monumental moments in Australian history, the 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum and the 25th anniversary of the High Court’s Mabo decision.

The Referendum bought Australia together and it bought us out of our shadowed past as Australia voted to be counted as one people.

And 25 years later we reached another milestone – Mabo.

Eddie Mabo’s name is now iconic in Australia.

He was correct when he told his daughter Gail:

‘One day, my girl, all of Australia is going to know my name’.

The Court case he initiated set the basis for Native Title in Australia, overturning the offensive terra nullius and reaffirming what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders always knew, that this land, its waters and its wonders were and will always be Aboriginal land.

After the historic High Court decision, Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating took this moment, a watershed moment, and bought together Aboriginal leaders, including my Labor colleague Senator Pat Dodson to enshrine Mabo in the Native Title Act.

While Eddie sadly passed away before his goal was achieved, his courage and spirit carried on, and changed everything.

And today, all of Australia knows his name.

These were not easy victories.

It was hard work.

They were hard won achievements, fought for in the face of indignity, indifference and institutionalised prejudice.

The men and women who achieved this momentous progress fought not only for themselves, but for their children, their grandchildren and ultimately for every one of us in Australia.

Australians cheered Polly Farmer on the footy field but they didn’t count him in the census.

In Vietnam, at the Battle of Long-Tan, Buddy Lea took three bullets and died for a nation that still did not consider him an Australian.

My Parliamentary Labor colleague Linda Burney was 10 years old at the time of the 1967.

Now, a Federal Member of Parliament and powerful voice in our nation, she was considered by law an outsider in her own country for the first decade of her life.

For many of our younger generation, it might seem unthinkable that these injustices took place within living memory, within the lived experience of our families, friends and our colleagues.

And I know that for Linda, as I am certain is true for many of you, these experiences have had a profound influence on your lives. For Linda, it has driven her to a life of public service, of fighting for the rights and welfare of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians alike.

Of course there is another mark on Australia’s history that continues to cause pain for so many Aboriginal Australians – the experience of the Stolen Generation.

Again, within the lived experience of too many as we heard, mothers lived in perpetual fear that their children would be taken away from their family and their culture and their connect to land.

My words will never capture the horror of that cruelty, it is not something one can fully comprehend having never experienced it. But instead I can honour those of the stolen generation who are with us today, and who will share their stories with us today and remind us of our won past.

But as members of the Australian government we can and we must acknowledge our past, we can and we must take responsibility for it, and finally we can and we must commit ourselves to working every day to achieve a better future.

At the moment we are working towards that next milestone in the road to real reconciliation, constitutional recognition and treaty.

For this to be more than a symbol, recognition must be authored by our first Australian, not a bunch of white fellas in Canberra.

As in all aspects of reconciliation and Closing the Gap, it is Aboriginal voices that must ring out loud and clear.

In Canberra it is our job to listen.

Something our Parliament has failed to do in the past.

But we cannot afford to fail again.

I am proud to work with Aboriginal Australians in our Parliament, Linda Burney, Malandirri Macarthy and Pat Dodson from Labor, together with Ken Wyatt from the Liberals Party.

I know that Labor is working hard to make sure there are more and more Aboriginal voiced in political leadership across the nation and we will work with anyone keen to achieve this goal.

As we speak the debate around constitutional recognition is underway.

And today I recommit to always be here to listen to our local Aboriginal voices.

My door will always be open and, feedback will always be welcome and it is a wonderful thing to have the League in my electorate.

I would like to end with a message of hope, a message of success, in brief a message for the future.

In his Redfern address of 1992, Prime Minister Paul Keating said:

‘We cannot imagine that the descendants of people whose genius and resilience maintained a culture here through fifty thousand years or more, through cataclysmic changes to the climate and environment, and who then survived two centuries of disposession and abuse, will be denied their place in the modern Australian nation’.

Hear, hear.

I cannot.

Every day I see first Australians seizing opportunities, helping their community, leading our nation in Parliament, leading our nation in every sphere of endevour and empowering others through their acts.

Just this morning I joined Thornbury Primary School for their National Sorry Day commemoration. This was a beautiful experience and a beautiful school with an Aboriginal language program and a focus on Aboriginal history and culture.

I think that is the future of reconciliation.

A world where all Australian children grow up learning Aboriginal language.

Where all Australian children grow up with a profound love and respect for Aboriginal culture.

Where all Australian children learn Australian history that skips nothing.

There is still a monumental task ahead of us but with your voice, your experience and our national commitment, the seeds planted by people like Eddie Mabo, Pat Dodson, Doug Nicholls and the mothers of the Stolen Generation will bloom.

Can I thank my colleague and the member for Gellibrand Tim Watts. I am also proud to be in the company tonight of both the member for Macmillan and my neighbour the member for Wills. I thank them for bringing forward this important motion in support of community sponsorship for refugees.

The former Labor government initiated a pilot community sponsorship program for 500 places in 2012 and under the program individuals, businesses and community organisations were able to sponsor applicants within the Australian refugee and humanitarian program. These sponsors covered the cost of visa requirements and the provision of practical resettlement assistance. By involving community organisations from the applicant stage, and particularly in the practical resettlement stage, we were able to leverage the substantial community capacity that exists within Australia.

The program was not without its flaws, in particular around its ad hoc nature and the heavy reliance on approved proposing organisations to work with families and sponsors to facilitate the process. However, the program was extremely popular with the response to its introduction vastly exceeding available places. In addition, a 2015 department of immigration review of the pilot was largely positive, finding the program could provide an additional resettlement pathway. The initial evidence showed that there were higher and faster grant rates for humanitarian visas under this program.

I am pleased that the Turnbull government committed to making this program permanent during President Obama’s refugee summit in New York in September of last year. They also committed to increased the intake to 1,000. While in and of themselves these are commendable actions, I am disappointed and concerned that the increase, and the commitment itself, exists only within the current resettlement quota.

By operating this program within the existing quota, all of us miss a key opportunity to make a difference. I believe we undermine the very purpose of community sponsorship, which is to expand our humanitarian intake and to do so without burdening taxpayers. Instead, by including any community sponsorship program in the existing quota, the Turnbull government’s current program is pushing the cost and the responsibility for resettling refugees onto the private sector. That is not good enough, because ultimately that is about cost shifting and not compassion.

I believe we can and should do better by making community sponsorship an expanded part of Australia’s humanitarian policy package and by making it an addition to, rather than including it within, our existing humanitarian intake. Canada provides a real example of the positive role community sponsorship can play, with over a quarter of a million refugees processed through a similar program. Importantly, Canada’s program supplements the government intake scheme.

There are currently an estimated 65 million displaced people globally, with the UNHCR estimating that more than 1.1 million are in need of permanent resettlement. Australia can and should do more to provide leadership in our region and to make sure we bring more refugees to Australia safely by increasing our contribution to the UNHCR, placing Australia within the top five global contributors; by restoring the 1951 Refugee Convention to the Migration Act, reversing the Abbott government’s attempts to undermine international law; by building a regional humanitarian framework in our region through real leadership, including advocating for the rights of refugees in transit countries; by protecting the interests of children by introducing an independent children’s advocate; and by creating a safe, humane environment in immigration processing through faster processing, independent oversight, transparency and third-party resettlement.

I am proud that Labor has committed to increasing our annual humanitarian intake to 27,000, almost doubling the current number reached under this government of only 13,750.

Community sponsorship can offer an alternative pathway for resettlement. It is another way for more refugees to come to Australia, to come safety and to come in a way that does not overly burden the Australian taxpayer.

By way of example, in my own community, I have encountered many Middle Eastern Christian communities, in particular, who are deeply anxious about the fate of relatives and coreligionists in Syria and Iraq. The Melkite congregation in Fairfield, led by Father Samir, and the congregation of Saint George’s orthodox cathedral in Fairfield, led by Reverend Father George Nassir and the secretary George Ibrahim, are already doing all they can to bring refugees to Australia to resettle them. For instance, in the case of the cathedral, there are families living there and getting support from that community. Those communities, those people and their passion can be put to greater use, and this can be done in a way that makes a positive contribution.

I commend this motion. I commend the member for Gellibrand for bringing it forward. I hope to see a sponsorship program that is additional to our intake and that forms an important part of Australia’s humanitarian framework.

A couple of weeks ago I, together with my wife Liberty and son Ned, was proud to visit and lend my support to the 89 Fletcher Insulation workers who have now been on strike since 17 February.

As we move into the harsh cold of a Melbourne winter, these workers have kept faith with one another and their union, the AWU and remained at their 24 hour vigil at the gates of this Dandenong factory.

These workers have been a key part of Fletcher Building’s success and growing profits, with many having given decades of their working lives to this company as loyal employees.

This hard working group has recently has their loyalty repaid with an Enterprise Agreement which would slash longstanding conditions, and provide absolutely zero wage increases for three years while increasing hours and undermining overall job security. This was an Enterprise Agreement they simply could not accept.

It’s not an easy choice for workers to take action like this. It’s a long time for families to go without a pay cheque. But these guys are prepared to put themselves on the line for others and for what is right and what is fair.

I am proud to support the workers at Fletcher Insulation in their fight for fair treatment today, on day 95 of their fight for justice.

Since the Abbott-Turnbull government abolished the carbon price, there has been a national policy vacuum created by their inaction. As a result of that negligence, wholesale electricity prices across Australia have doubled. In fact, the only ones congratulating the Turnbull government on their energy policy are the Turnbull government. The recent budget saw this government proudly announce a number of policies that they have lauded as an energy security package. However, like the rest of the measures in this year’s budget, this so-called package is an admission of failure, a signed confession, without actually fixing the problem. As Tony Wood, the Director of the Energy Program of the Grattan Institute has said:

The budget does little more on energy than endorse the government’s deal with Senator Nick Xenophon on corporate tax cuts …

Tinkering with investment in gas pipelines without addressing the issue of domestic market exposure to price rises from the international market is just not enough. Labor has been warning for years about the problems in our gas market. The gas market in this country is broken. I urge the government to adopt a permanent national interest test for the gas market so that Australian businesses and households are at the front of the queue. If the Turnbull government were really serious about energy security in this country, they would also swallow their partisan pride and join Labor in supporting and adopting an emissions intensity scheme, an idea that we know many in the coalition would support but is banned because of the activities of the hard Right inside the Liberal’s parliamentary party. This act would put downward pressure on power prices and send the signal that investors are crying out for to renew our ageing electricity infrastructure. Emissions intensity schemes are supported by a vast majority of industry and experts from across the political spectrum, including the Climate Change Authority, BHP and the New South Wales Young Nationals.

While the Turnbull government is proposing, but not guaranteeing, $110 million for a solar project in Port Augusta, they are threatening to throw $1 billion at the Adani Carmichael mine in Queensland. This is a true indication of this government’s priorities. If this government were indeed serious about jobs then they could have supported the Australian car industry for half the price and produced 40 times more jobs than the Galilee Basin is projected to do, even on the most generous of assessments.

This is not really about jobs. This is nothing more than a national party boondoggle, and it is doing nothing for our industry or our environment. The big four banks have now ruled out funding, or withdrawn funding from, the Queensland coal project, and that speaks to the fact that this project struggles to stack up financially.

There continue to be very deep environmental concerns. Only today the government has had to quietly axe a number of environmental conditions protecting vulnerable turtle species just to keep this project on track. This is despite the minister promising some of the strictest environmental conditions in Australian history—nothing more than rhetoric, and rhetoric that has not been lived up to with deeds from this government. It is easy to meet environmental standards when you just scrap the inconvenient ones, but that does not make it right. It casts yet another shadow over this Adani project and this government’s energy security policy.

Protecting and creating jobs is important. It is crucial for our communities and crucial for our country. That is why Labor wants to see an orderly transition from fossil fuels accompanied by support for workers, rather than having to react to the decisions of multinationals made on the other side of the world, as we saw at Hazelwood. It is also why I am shocked that those opposite can talk about jobs and growth while at the same time facilitating the loss of over 3,000 jobs in the renewable sector. They are setting this country up to be a technology taker, not a technology maker. In the future, when renewable energy has come to dominate energy markets around the world, this coalition would have us still relying on an energy sector that is running out of lifespan.

There is nothing sensible or pragmatic about the Turnbull government’s energy policy because they do not have an energy policy. ‘Pragmatic’ must mean more than just a lack of progress. It must mean acknowledging realities, building this country’s future, and making the big decisions that need to be made to secure our renewable energy industries and the jobs and growth that will flow from that investment.

The question being asked again and again in our body politic is: how has a seemingly smart man made such stupid strategic decisions over and over? The Prime Minister’s conduct of the 18C debate reveals the true character of the government and the true character of the Prime Minister—powerless within his own party; pandering to an ideological right-wing that regard the Prime Minister as an outsider, even an imposter; pursuing an issue that appeals to a tiny rump of hard-line ideologues but not the great majority of Australians; pursuing legislative changes that seek to solve a problem that does not really exist. It consumes the political capital of a government that has none to spend. It consumes momentum of a government that is already in paralysis. It mobilises key parts of the community against the Liberal Party, parts of the community from whom a smarter, more centrist Liberal Party may have hoped to draw support rather than such fierce opposition. And it ensures that this government continues to talk about issues that are irrelevant to ordinary Australians, to talk about boutique alternative right causes.

I cannot believe that we are here again, having once again to fight this fight to stop the government weakening protections against hate speech. We first had to fight this fight during the reign of Prime Minister Tony Abbott. You might recall on that occasion that the Attorney-General, George Brandis, famously made the argument for change based around the notion that ‘people have the right to be bigots’. At that time, it was primarily about protecting their mate Andrew Bolt and showing that he was hard done-by at the hands of a vast politically correct conspiracy, a conspiracy that haunts the dreams and populates the nightmares of conservative politicians.

There was at that time a massive movement from the Australian community, ethnic representative groups and the Labor Party to put a stop to those changes. And ultimately, even the then Prime Minister, the member for Warringah realised his mistake saying, ‘Leadership is about preserving national unity on the essentials and that is why I have taken this position.’ At that moment, Prime Minister Tony Abbott showed more backbone and a greater realisation of what it means to be leader, a greater sense of strategic nouse than Prime Minister Turnbull ever has.

But here we are again pursuing a debate and a piece of legislation that we know the Prime Minister does not support, we know the Deputy Prime Minister does not support and we know the Australian people do not support. But once more, the ‘Idaho Militia’ that dominates the Liberal Party Room have prevailed over a Prime Minister that has no authority in the party he stole, the party he led to near-catastrophe in 2016. In August last year Turnbull said, ‘The government has no plans to change 18C. We have other, much more pressing priorities to address and they include big economic reforms.’ Has he just run out of policy or, once more, has he been over-run by his right wing?

Even the Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has slammed the Liberal Party for focusing on this issue as a political distraction. When the Deputy Prime Minister is the person making the most sense, we all know this government is close to losing its will to live! A Fairfax-Ipsos poll of March 28 found eight in 10 voters oppose changes that would make it legal to ‘offend, insult or humiliate’. The Australian people know it is wrong and it is unpopular. The Turnbull government even excluded Indigenous voices from the 18C inquiry notwithstanding the fact that 54 per cent of complainants identify as Indigenous.

The law as it is now strikes the right balance between free speech and protecting people from racial hate speech. Section 18C says it is unlawful for a person to do an act in public which is ‘reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate’ another person or a group of people. Offend, insult, humiliate have a legal definition which case law has determined creates a high bar, and 18D creates public interest and good faith protections which those opposite always fail to consider.

This will impact my electorate. The electorate of Batman is proudly multicultural and is among the most diverse communities in Victoria. Half of my constituents speak a language other than English and one in 10 are not fluent in English. It has the largest urban Aboriginal population in Victoria and is home to many Aboriginal peak bodies. What does this government want people to be able to say that they cannot say now? What does the government want members of my community to be able to hear that they cannot hear now?

]]>http://davidfeeney.com.au/18c/feed/0THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO GET OVER ITS LOVE AFFAIR WITH COALhttp://davidfeeney.com.au/coal-vs-renewables/
http://davidfeeney.com.au/coal-vs-renewables/#respondMon, 27 Mar 2017 22:12:39 +0000http://davidfeeney.com.au/?p=1571Tweet

I thank the member for Capricornia for this excellent opportunity to express my concerns and, indeed, the concerns of my constituents regarding the Adani Carmichael coalmine and this government’s irresponsible attack on renewables in pursuit of its love affair with coal. This government’s fascination with jobs in the present economy does, of course, have its virtues, but, when it considers the public policy question around energy policy and coal, this government approaches the issues with the zealotry and single-mindedness of it being a religious war rather than it being a considered public policy debate trying to search for the best and most economic solutions for our country.

As the contribution from the last speaker exemplifies, for the government this is a zero-sum game. This is good versus evil. This is coal versus evil imitators. This is not a government searching for an evidence based and sensible approach that would best advantage this country. In fact, it amazes me that every time a member of this government seeks to once again praise the future of coal—by bringing into this place, for instance, for a nationwide show-and-tell a lump of coal—they continue to float irresponsible and absurd claims about renewable energies. Every year when we are breaking records when it comes to extreme weather events in Australia and our Pacific neighbours are under immediate threat from rising sea levels—and we know things will continue to get worse until we do something decisive about it—from this government we see, at best, in its most glorious moments, mere inaction, and more often we see nothing less than absolute sabotage, partisan attacks on renewable energy and partisan attacks on measures that are aimed to reduce and tackle climate change.

In relation to Adani, one of the key objections expressed by my constituents is the proposal to use large amounts of government money to prop up that project. Reportedly, the project requires up to $1 billion in federal funds so as to make it a viable project. We know already that 74 per cent of Australians oppose that kind of use of public sector moneys. It is not just controversial, it is ridiculous, that Australian taxpayers should be forking out moneys on that scale to prop up a project when investment in the renewable energy sector is not only good for the environment but it is good for jobs, good for the economy and good for the future economy of this country.

I appreciate the member for Capricornia’s concern for job creation. It should be and is the proper focus for every member of this place and every government. But that is why I find it so hypocritical that this government can continue to shout about jobs and growth while they ensure that Australia misses out on the economic opportunities of the global renewable energy boom. This government’s attack on the renewable energy industry, most recently on display in South Australia, has had dire consequences for jobs and it has stymied the growth of an industry while the rest of the world has been reaping the economic benefits. This year alone, the Turnbull government’s attacks on renewable energy have led to the loss of 2,150 jobs in the renewable sector. This brings the total number of job losses from renewable energy under the Abbott-Turnbull governments to 5,720. That is one in three jobs in this sector that have been lost under the watch of this government. In fact, when it comes to the energy debate, this government are real live job killers. Meanwhile, globally, renewable energy jobs have grown by 45 per cent around the world. Here we are contracting at a time when this industry is starting to take off globally. If we were making the most of this global growth rate, rather than squandering it since 2013, there would be 24,000-plus jobs here in Australia rather than the 11,000 we have present. That is an opportunity cost this government’s policy—this government’s rear-vision mirror image of this industry—is costing us right now.

Ironically enough, in recent days we saw ARENA—an entity that this government has twice tried to abolish—now saddled with the task of undertaking a feasibility study for an expansion of the Snowy River project, a project that the Liberal Party boycotted the opening of many moons ago. This media stunt, these pseudo-events, these partisan, crusader-like attacks on renewable energies are nothing more than an inexplicable ideological obsession that defies evidence based, sensible public policy and is costing us jobs now. It is costing our economy now. It is all well and good to put forward a motion talking about the importance of job creation and energy security, but if you ignore on purely partisan grounds or inexplicable— (Time expired).

I was proud to last week stand with Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula, member for Northcote Fiona Richardson and staff from the Darebin Community Legal Centre as we together called on the Turnbull government to scrap its cruel cuts to community legal centre funding. The Darebin Community Legal Centre has been helping our local community since 1978. Their family law program, in particular, has been supporting the victims of family violence and touching the lives of 430 families and over 1,000 children every year.

Under the Turnbull government’s cuts, they will lose over $130,000 per annum. Critically, this means that their family law program, upon which so many rely, will cease to operate from 30 June this year if those cuts proceed. Without this program, victims of domestic violence will be forced to negotiate family law issues with their violent ex-partners, exposing them to continuing risk. It is absurd that this government will not invest $30 million in desperately needed community services, but they are more than eager to give big business a $50 billion tax cut. For the sake of those vulnerable members of our community who rely on the Darebin Community Legal Centre, I urge this government to rethink their cruel cuts before it is too late. It is vital that we fund equal access to justice.

Throughout my career I have been a staunch supporter of the alliance with the United States, and that has been true in the counsels of the trade union movement and of the Labor Party. I remain a staunch supporter. But we have to acknowledge that the relationship is under strain. Of course that is why this resolution has been brought forward. In acknowledging that strain, we have to acknowledge that the alliance, while of course it must be an institution that survives the ebb and flow of different administrations in different countries, is facing very real challenges—challenges of the moment and longer term challenges.

We must speak truth to power and we must speak truth to crazy. We see in President Trump a spiral of leadership which potentially has very unfortunate consequences for our nation. President Trump has brought to the body politic of the United States an unprecedented level of falsehood—statements such as that Ted Cruz’s father helped kill President Kennedy; that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower; that there were some three to five million illegal votes cast in the recent US election; mocking the disabled. We saw his National Security Adviser Flynn forced to resign because of contact he had with the Russians. And, most recently, we saw the FBI director confirm that that agency began investigating the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia from July 2016. We have a president of the United States whose own party often seeks to distance itself from him. The resolution being brought forward in the US Senate, which is absolutely welcome and a joy to see, was of course brought forward in the context of those senators wanting to reassure Australia in the context of the behaviour of their president.

We saw an appalling attack by President Trump on Senator John McCain, when he described him as not being a war hero because of course he had been captured by the enemy—a disgraceful set of remarks. And we see continuing attacks on the fourth estate, denigrating his critics as ‘fake news’. Even legislative oversight is denounced by President Trump: John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was denounced by President Trump when he—as is, of course, his legislative role—asked questions of the administration concerning military action in Yemen. Also we see judicial oversight scorned, with the President referring to ‘so-called judges’, denigrating and undermining the legitimacy of the judiciary in the United States.

What this adds up to is the fact that the United States, the arsenal of freedom in our world, has now entered into a domestic political discourse which unnerves its allies. When the President of the United States talks about ‘America first’, he is not talking about anything other than pursuing self-interest in a Westphalian nation-state system. That might be perfectly reasonable behaviour, but it does mean the United States is moving away from what has long been its global mission of exceptionalism, where it has talked about doing more than pursuing its own interest. When they called for Gorbachev to pull down the Berlin Wall, they were not simply seeking their self-interest; they were speaking to shared values about promoting democracy and fighting tyranny. We now see Trump changing that political discourse and changing in a way which unnerves America’s allies.

The world needs the United States. United States is now asking itself the question, does it need the world? A US retreat into isolationism is something that we should be very concerned about indeed. It is the United States which has questioned its alliances. It is President Trump and his tweeting that has questioned the existence of NATO, the alliance with Japan and the burden-sharing that the US has around the world. These questions have been put before us not by the Greens and not by Labor voices but, ultimately, by President Trump himself.